Feed for livestock typically includes a mixture of several different commodities, such as hay, straw and other types of grain, that when mixed together produce a feed product that is customized to the diet of a group of livestock. The various commodities for a specific feed product are retrieved from bulk commodity locations and then mixed in large, stationary mixers. In practice, commodity transportation vehicles retrieve the required commodities from one or more bulk commodity locations and transport the commodities to the location of the stationary feed mixers. The commodity transportation vehicles, or other commodity loading vehicles such as fork lifts or shovel loaders, then load the commodities into the stationary mixers. When the stationary mixers have fully mixed the commodities, the commodities are loaded, for example, into the feed transportation vehicles, such as feed trailers.
The feed production and transportation process described above requires several manually-operated vehicles, fuel to power the vehicles, and trained workers to operate the vehicles. As such, the process is time consuming and expensive for feed producers. In addition, commodities and/or feed are often lost during loading, transportation and unloading of the commodities and/or feed. The loss of a portion of the commodities and/or feed causes significant losses in profitability for feed producers and is often referred to as “shrinkage.” In addition, because livestock producers rely on a steady supply of feed from the feed production process, maintenance of the components of the above-described process, such as the stationary mixers, must be performed quickly to minimize downtime. Oftentimes, maintenance of the stationary mixers must be performed at the location of the stationary mixer, regardless of the weather conditions or time of day. On-site maintenance and repair of the mixers or other feed production equipment can be dangerous for technicians, especially when other feed production processes are in operation while the technicians perform maintenance.